Where's WordPress 2.8?
Published on 7th May 2009 Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutesIt now seems that WordPress 2.7 has been an unqualified success. The major changes that were made to the administration screens have been well received, and the grumblings that were extant about 2.5 and 2.6 seem to have dissipated too. Another observation is that security bugs have not been making their presence felt. All in all, it feels very much like assured progress and may explain why 2.8 has been taking its time in coming.
It's now pencilled in for the end of this month and looks as if it will be a polishing of what already works well. It seems to me that most of the changes are behind the scenes, but there is a new widgets interface that should be ever more user-friendly together with an automated theme installation and upgrade facility that is based on what is already in place for plugins (speaking of which, that interface has been tidied too). Another rough edge that has been removed is the whole business of time zones and daylight saving time. In summary, it seems to be a sharpening of a package that already works well anyway. I have been running it on another site without a whimper of drama, so that's probably saying something. Saying that, quite how they are going to get anyone to upgrade is another matter. For one thing, Lorelle VanFossen's overuse of the word "mandatory" cannot be likely to do it...
In a way, the subject of upgrade fatigue brings me to a recent poll run by Automattic's Jane Wells. Quite a number want to stick with what works, while others fancy a change. This split could be tricky to manage and might even encourage some not to upgrade at all and stick with what works for them. After all, there were two episodes of major upheaval last year and I cannot see everyone wishing to see that happen again. Continual evolutionary freshening would suit me better. Thankfully, any talk of changing the administration screens has been left for 2.9 now, and there's always the option of sticking with 2.8 if what is produced becomes a sufficient irritation. Well, it saves a leap to Habari or another alternative anyway...